Study the extracts below and try to answer the questions that foolllows.
EXTRACT THREE
How ever, I have for many years been sure that there is an all-powerfull God who made me the sort of creature that I am. How do I know that he has'nt brough it about that there is no earth, no sky, nothing that takes up space, no shape, no size, no place, while making sure that all these appear to me to exist? Anyway, I sometimes think that others go wrong even when they think they hhave the most perfect knowledge; so how do i know that I my self don't go wrong every time I add two and three or count the sides of a square? well, you might say, God would not let me be deceived like that, because he is said to be supremely good. But, I reply, God's goodness would stop him from letting me be deceived all time, you would expect it to stop him from allowing me to be deceived even occasionally; yet clearly I sometimes am deceived.
QUESTIONS
- Bring out the theme and the logical articulations of this passage.
- Explain the following concepts and expressions as used in the passage that is " perfect knowledge" and "supremely good"
- Is Descartes a proponent of creationism?
- State and explain Descartes' ontological argument of God's existence.
- Is the cartesian theory of God compatible with Manichaeism? What is the impact of the central theme to our contemporary society?
EXTRACT FOUR
Still, how do I know that there isn't something - not on that list - about which there is no room for even the slightest doubt? Isnt't there a God ( call him what you will) who gives me the thoughts I am now having? But why do I think this, since I might myself be author of these thoughts? But then doesn't it follow that I am, at least, something? This is very confusing, because I have just said that I have no senses that one would think that I can't exist without them. Now that I have convinced my self that there is nothing in the world - no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies, - does it follow that I don't exist either? No it does not follow; for if I convinced my self of something then I certainly existed.
But there is a supremely powerful and cunning deceiver who deliiberately deceives me all the time! Even then, if he is deceiving me I undoubtedly exist; let him deceive me all he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing while i think I am something. So after thoroughly thinking the matter through, I conclude that this proposition I am, I exist must be true when never I assert it or think it.
QUESTIONS
- Bring out the theme and the logical articulations of this passage.
- Explain the following concepts and expressions as used in the passage. "a supremely powerful and malicious deceiver", "sense perception", "a thinking thing", "thinking"
- What is the relationship Descartes establishes between thinking and existence?
- What is the criteria of certainty to Descartes?
- What is Descartes' point viz-a-viz the scholastics' credo ego sum?
- What is the impact of the central theme to our contemporary society?